My Long Lost Bubbly Girl

Saturday March 17th

I met someone at the bookstore over a year ago, an employee who had a wonderful smile and something different about the way she talked. I noticed that she had a very bubbly personality and that she had a bit of a laugh, a tiny laugh, with almost every sentence, usually right at the end.

We chatted several times, but then we got disconnected. For several months she was never at the bookstore at the same time that I was shopping. I just knew her first name, and the other employees told me she still worked there, and so I just left an informal "well, tell her hi for me" message. I eventually stopped asking.

I would drive by the bookstore several times but usually at the wrong time of day because I typically grocery shop very late, or I had frozen food and had to get home.

So I was slightly saddened that this friendship had appeared to have disappeared, lost over time. She seemed to be a good match for a friendship. Hmmm, bummer. I thought, well, that happens sometimes. Move on.

My son and I were going out of town for several hours together, but first we were going to have breakfast with his wife. So the three of us were traveling to particular restaurant "A", when suddenly my son the driver switched lanes and pulled into a local diner "B", where I rarely go. He said, "I am making an executive decision, we are going to eat here instead"

I was okay with the decision, knowing that their food was usually pretty good, but I rarely eat breakfast at restaurants in my own town, and I didn't like diner "B"'s French Fries. My son's wife said, "He has been getting better at making executive decisions lately."

So we are seated by the restaurant greeter, but someone else was going to be our waitress.

Suddenly in my peripheral vision is my Bubbly Girl from the bookstore, and she is going to be our waitress and I say, "Its you!" and she cracks up laughing and points at me, and we have a wonderful reunion moment, comparing notes of our disconnection.

She had almost left town to move far away, but had switched jobs and several other positive things were going on in her life, so I am very happy for her. I have lost too many friendships in the last few years for usually unknown or bizarre reasons, and it was nice that this one did not. Now I'll just have to see if diner "B" can make a grilled chicken sandwich!